Board agrees to lab fees

Friday

Jan 18, 2013 at 10:34 AMJan 18, 2013 at 10:35 AM

Cynthia Grau

The Livingston County Sheriff’s Department’s decision to send a lot of its crime evidence to the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Lab in Vernon Hills was still a hot topic at the Livingston County Board meeting Thursday evening. The request had been approved in November and money was allotted for it in the Enterprise Fund Zone, which is used for county enhancements. The intergovernmental agreement between the county and NIRCL was brought up for approval at the meeting and many board members had questions and comments about the procedure and less of approving the agreement.The idea was first presented in November and a big selling point was that this could be used in cracking and following new leads in the Edwards double homicide, which happened 30 years ago next Tuesday. Sheriff Martin Meredith, Sgt. Det. Earl Dutko and Sgt. Tony Childress set that record straight, stating that any evidence can be sent there and can be processed quicker than at the state crime lab, as well as it can process specific evidence that the state crime lab can’t. Childress added that they have respect for the state crime lab and have never had a problem, it’s just that the lab is inundated with evidence from throughout the state and has to prioritize what they get and the NIRCL takes the evidence and processes it as it comes in a more timely fashion.Three board members, Bob Weller pointed out, including himself and two other current board members, were all serving on the board when the murders happened and expressed to the board and the public how important he felt that new leads were followed and that the evidence should be sent to NIRCL. Chairman Marty Fannin also read a letter from the late Marsha Edwards’ sister, Virginia Bradshaw, expressing her support for the evidence to be evaluated by NIRCL, which was the lab that the evidence was originally sent to. With the advances in technology in the last 30 years, the evidence gathered can be tested for things it couldn’t be tested for then. Other than the Edwards case, Dutko explained that the county experiences at least one burglary a month and if the department could have evidence processed, for example, in 11 days, which is how fast some evidence was returned to the department recently, officers could find the burglar, potentially keep other burglaries from happening and even solve past burglaries. The board approved the intergovernmental agreement, for a total of $20,467.In other news, representatives from Gamesa presented a check to the county board for a total of $825,000, which was an Enterprise Zone payment.An auction coming up on Feb. 9 at the Regions Bank building was also approved, which is to sell the excess property from the temporary offices that county departments inhabited while work was being finished in the historical courthouse that didn’t make the move back into the courthouse. The same type of auction was done when offices moved from the courthouse to the Law and Justice Center. The only exception is some of the property that was used in the former county board office on the second floor of the Pontiac Public Library, which Jason Barickman will use as his new office. Alina Hartley, administrative resource specialist, explained that the equipment was only appraised at $600, and if it made that much at auction, after the auction house’s 30 percent was taken off of the profits, the county wouldn’t have stood to make much money off of the sale, so they chose to let Barickman use it. This measure was also approved.Bill Flott, vice chairman of the Personnel Committee, explained that an early retirement incentive plan has been drawn up for some county personnel, which may be offered to encourage a group of people to retire, saving the county large amounts of money because the possible retirees are some of the highest-salaried people on staff.Board member Joan Bullard read the resolution, stating, “They have to have more than 30 years of continuous service with the county. They can not qualify for Medicare and their effective retirement date is on or before May 1. Whereas, those qualifying employees must submit their retirement request and resignation on or before May 1 will be entitled to a lump sum payment in the amount equal to six months of health, dental and vision insurance premiums as of the effective date of retirement. The amount paid to the employee will be reduced by the usual customary deduction for income tax, FICA, Medicare, IMRF and the like and this amount will be included on any subsequent IRS form, W2, issued to the employee.”The amount paid out would be approximately $4,400 per person and it would affect four to five employees. The board approved this resolution.Other actions approved included the Streator Enterprise Zone Extension, the county clerk’s semi-annual report and appointments of Gibs Nielson to the Zoning Board of Appeals, Charles Cole to the Reading Community Fire Protection District and Jeremy Haas to the Turtle Creek Outlet Drainage District.The county board will meet again Feb. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Historic Livingston County Courthouse.